Hard to look beyond Native Princess in Iowa Stallion Filly Stakes
Native Princess might be a better one-run closing sprinter than a stalking route horse, but on ability alone she remains the most likely winner of the $65,000 Iowa Stallion Filly Stakes on Friday night at Prairie Meadows.
Native Princess is one of nine 3-year-old fillies in the eighth race, post time 8:42 p.m. Central, and is a reasonable 7-5 on the track’s morning line. But eight of her nine career starts have come in sprint races, and while her lone two-turn start was solid, Native Princess didn’t appear to have quite the same late energy that she has often shown in one-turn starts.
Native Princess is trained by Karl Broberg, who, with 46 victories entering this racing week, is running in volume and winning similarly at the Prairie Meadows meet. The filly has already had a busy meeting, with five starts crammed in since May 7, and she likely lacks room for any further development at the moment.
She came with a late run to beat open, first-level allowance foes by a head in a six-furlong race July 2, one race after her only attempt at two turns. That came in the Hawkeyes Stakes, in which Native Princess faced older Iowa-bred rivals; she managed to beat nine of them but was no match late for the victorious Mywomanfromtokyo, failing to gain any ground in the final furlong.
It’s not that difficult to see Native Princess running below her best form Friday, but the problem is coming up with an alternative to try to beat her. There are four maidens in the field, and not a single entrant has won a two-turn race. Another Bond Girl, the 5-2 morning-line second choice, has Beyer Speed Figures competitive with those earned by Native Princess, but her best numbers have come on turf and over sloppy main tracks. She was second last year going seven furlongs around two turns in the $75,000 By the Light at Delta Downs, but even more than Native Princess, she looks like a filly lacking a sustained run to finish off a two-turn race on a full-sized oval like Prairie Meadows.